Visit a Fire Station
Schedule a trip to a local fire station to meet the firefighters, see where they live, and learn about their equipment. This is a great way to help children become familiar with firefighters and the way they might look when answering an emergency call.
Fire Inspection Tour
Take your children on a tour of your classroom or building and look for fire extinguishers, emergency fire alarm boxes, and exits.
Make Cardboard Box Fire Trucks
Bring in some cardboard boxes with the tops and bottoms cut off. Let children paint the boxes red or yellow. When the paint has dried, glue cardboard toilet paper and paper towel rolls to one side of each box to look like ladders. Have children paint several paper plates black. Glue four plates to the sides of each box for wheels. Glue one plate to the inside front of each box for a steering wheel. Attach rope to the upper edges of the boxes so that children can hang the boxes from their shoulders to drive the fire trucks.
SENSORY TABLE
Fill the water table with water. Provide cups and rubber tubing to resemble hoses and funnels.
MOVEMENT and GAMES
Get Down and Crawl
Share with children why it is important to stay low to the ground when a fire causes smoke to fill a room or building (smoke rises leaving breathable air close to the floor). Have a small group of children hold and gently shake a bed sheet horizontal to the ground to simulate smoke from a fire. Have the rest of the children take turns crawling close to the floor under the sheet as if in a real fire situation. Recite the following rhyme as children practice crawling low to the ground. Switch out the children holding the sheet so that everyone has a chance to practice.
Get Down and Crawl
(Author Unknown)
If you don't want to choke,
Crawl under the smoke.
Get down on the floor,
And head for the door.
Firefighter's Workout
Firefighters need to stay healthy and strong to be able to carry the heavy fire equipments. Let children join you in a firefighter's workout. Do exercises like jumping jacks, leg lifts, running in place, and carrying buckets full of water from one place to another.
Fire Safety Ball Toss
Have children sit in a circle. Give one child a small soft ball. Explain that the child with the ball will toss it to another child in the circle. That child needs to catch the ball and tell the group one important fire safety rule. Once the child with the ball has recited a rule, he or she gets to throw the ball to another child who recites a second important fire safety rule. After several fire safety rules have been addressed, the game can be continued with a new set of safety rules (i.e. for riding a bicycle, for crossing the street etc.)
What's in the Bag that Begins with F?
Collect some items that begin with the letter F (i.e. a toy fire truck, a stuffed frog, a fork, a toy fish, a flag). Each day place one of the items in a bag and allow children to ask "yes" or "no" questions (Is it blue?, Is it round?, Is it an animal? etc.) in order to guess the object. Remind children each time that the mystery object begins with an "F" as in the word "firefighter."
Ladder Bean Bag Toss
Place an old ladder flat on the ground. Give children bean bags and challenge them to try to throw the bean bags into the spaces between the ladder rungs. The ladder can lay flat horizontally for younger children and vertically for older children who may want to try longer distances. An alternative is to set the ladder upright and challenge children to throw the bean bags through the spaces made by the ladder rungs. The different spaces can be labeled with points or pictures for children who want to aim for particular areas of the ladder.
Red Tag
Children take turns being "it." If a child is close to being tagged, he or she can sit down and name something "red" to be safe (i.e. apple, fire truck, stop sign, tomato, heart). If a child is tagged before he or she can sit down OR name something that is red, he or she becomes the next "it."
SNACKS
Yummy Fire Trucks
What you need:
Graham crackers
Whipped cream cheese
Red food coloring
Popsicle sticks (for spreading)
Small pretzel sticks
Sliced black olives
Small square orange crackers